Birthday

I’m 36 today, and what better way to celebrate your birthday than to get up at 5:15am and run 15 miles? Actually, I was woken up at 4:45 by Lola. She’d had a “bad dream” and wanted to sleep in our bed. For the next 30 minutes she was tossing and turning, kicking and hugging me, shoving Teddy into my face, telling me about the toys her friend Molly had in her room, and generally making it absolutely impossible for me to get back to sleep. I was actually relieved when the clock showed 5:15, because it meant I had a reason to get up rather than fruitlessly trying to get some more sleep. I had gone to bed at 9:15 in the evening, so I was well rested by that time anyway.

The rest of Europe is shaken by a very nasty cold snap at the moment, but in Ireland we’re getting off lightly. It is a good bit colder than usual, alright, but no worse than –3C/26F or so. Still, I was glad for the long sleeves and gloves. I was in my shorts, but long pants might have been acceptable today. When I stopped at our driveway after 10 miles for a drink and a gel, I was steaming like an old steam engine - it looked quite funny in my headlamp. Never mind, the 15 miles went by fine. I was a bit more tired than I should have been, whether I was still tired from the intervals two days ago or from the fact that I have cut down my mileage over the last two weeks, I can’t tell. The achilles tendon is not as well recovered as I had hoped, because it is quite sore again. I’m still convinced that I’m on the mend, just not as well recovered as I had thought I am. There is yet another 20 miler on next week’s schedule, which sounds a bit taunting at the moment, but I’m sure I will be fine by the time it comes by (Tuesday or Thursday, I’m not yet sure).

I’ve just realised that it is less than two months to the marathon, and I’m starting to get those butterflies in my stomach whenever I think about it. I haven’t decided what time to aim for. It is a tough course, much more demanding than the 3-country-marathon I did in October, and a PR would be a great achievement. I guess I will have to wait and see how the training goes. If I can stay relatively injury free from now until March, I should be in good shape. Otherwise, well, I’ll still run it and hope for the best.

Jan 27: 15 miles, 2:07, 8:28 pace